5 Things you need to know about Real Madrid ahead of the La Liga season

1. Next up in our La Liga previews for the season is Real Madrid who have turned to Jose Mourinho in an attempt to try and overcome Barcelona this season, last season was pretty diastrous by Real Madrid’s standards with Xabi Alonso getting sacked following a humilatiating defeat in the Supercup to Barcelona in January. Alvaro Arbeloa came in and steered the ship for the next six months finishing in 2nd place ultimately 8 points behind Barca who won the league, they had some great results in the Champions League knocking out Benfica before hammering Man City in the next round thanks to a Federico Valverde hat-trick in the first leg. They met Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals and were level in the tie at the Allianz Arena before a stupid second yellow for Camavinga led to two quick-fire Bayern goals that ended the tie, the Copa Del Rey ended in pretty embarassing fashion in January getting knocked by Albacete who are a second division team. That season left Real Madrid trophyless for the second year in a row which doesn’t happen too often, can Mourinho be the one to turn it around this season?

2. How has Real Madrid’s transfer window gone so far? Madrid have been arguably the busiest club in this window bringing in Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig as a winger, Marc Cucurella from Chelsea for left-back, Carlos Espi from Levante as a striker, Denzel Dumfries from Inter Milan for right-back, Ibrahima Konate on a free for centre-back and finally Bernardo Silva on a free transfer for midfield. Outgoings wise there’s a couple to take note off with Gonzalo Garcia and Cesar Palacios following Arbeloa to Fulham whilst Fran Garcia has gone to Real Betis, the big talk throughout the window was regarding Vinicius Junior’s future at the Bernabeu but he’s now signed a long-term contarct with the club so I don’t think there’ll be a high-profile exit before the window. It seems like quite a while ago but Real madrid did put a £150 million bid in to sign Julian Alvarez at the end of June but I think that a tactic to try and get the price up for Barcelona, a cheeky tactic from Florentino Perez that will undoubtedly highten tention between all three clubs this season. Never a bad thing for the neutral.

3. How has Real Madrid’s pre-season gone so far? Madrid kicked off their pre-season with a 4-1 win over Leganes with goals coming from Federico Valverde, Gonzalo Garcia, Franco Mastantuano before an own-goal rounded of the win, next up came a 2-2 draw with Fiorentina with Endrick and Alexis Ciria getting on the scoresheet. After that came a 2-1 win over Ferencvaros with Mario Rivas and Carlos Espi scoring for Madrid, their penultimate pre-season game came against Deportivo La Coruna in which Madrid won 1-0 with Brahim Diaz scoring the only goal of the game. Their final pre-season game resulted in a 3-0 win over Schalke with Kylian Mbappe, Dean Huijsen and Carlos Espi scoring the goals for Madrid. It’ll be interesting to see how Mourinho navigates the start of the season with Mbappe only playing one pre-season match along with Cucurella and Bellingham, will he throw them staright in or gradually build up there minutes in the opening matches of the season? I’d imagine he’ll throw them straight given how important starting strong in the league is but that could backfire, Real Madrid kickoff their La Liga season at Espanyol on Saturday.

4. Who are the players to watch for Real Madrid this season? This is quite a tough one given the star power throughout the squad but there is a couple of players that I think are going under the radar at Madrid, first of this is a massive season coming up for Trent Alexander-Arnold. I don’t think he was as poor last season as many were making out but his season was massively affected by injury which ultimately probably cost him a chance at making the World Cup squad for England, with Dumfries coming in as competition it is imperative that Trent is fit and firing for the start of the season. I wonder if Mourinho will be tempted to try him out in midfield given his lack of real passers in there? Next up is Endrick who is coming off a sucessful loan spell at Lyon and is set to stay at Madrid this season despite the rumours that he was going out on loan again, he’s undoubtdely a quality player but I do worry about his minutes this season given he’s already behind Mbappe in the pecking order along with Carlos Espi coming in from Levante who has looked really good in the few pre-season games I’ve seen so far. Last but not least is Arda Guler who was a shining light at Madrid last season in my opinion but is coming off a really disappointing World Cup for Turkey, he has atrributes that no one else has in this Madrid squad but again I’d worry for his minutes this season given all the new signings coming in. Is there someone I’m missing that’s going under the radar for Madrid ahead of the season? Probably.

5. Predictions for Real Madrid this season? Mourinho has been brought in for one thing and one thing only, knock Barcelona off their perch at the top of La Liga, they’ve shown plenty of faith towards Mourinho with the amount of money spent but I still think they are massively lacking a midfielder in there. Rodri would have made the world of difference in the middle of the park for this team and I don’t think they’ll be bringing anyone else in to fill that gap, this is undoubtdely a team that has all the makings of a Champions League winning team given Mourinho’s pedigree in the competition and the superstars like Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Bellingham who can change the game in a second. I wouldn’t be shocked if Madrid were more successful in Europe than in La Liga this season given the strength of Barcelona again this season, unfortunately for Madrid I see them finishing 2nd again this season but a Champions League would more than make up for that. Could we see Real Madrid vs Barcelona in the Champions League this season? What a tie that would be.